Cinderella and Persephone
by ArtificialImagination
Summary: Long ago, they had told each other their favorite stories. She wanted to be Cinderella...to wear glass slippers and marry Prince Charming. But he wasn't Prince Charming. And he wasn't looking for a princess...


A/N: Posting my first Harry Potter oneshot is a bit terrifying.

I am by no means a Harry Potter expert...so if something is wrong, please GENTLY remind me and don't flame me going on about how big an idiot I have to be to get such-and-such soooo wrong. I suck. I know.

J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter. Not me. I know, you're shocked.

I like centered font. SO THERE.

So, enjoy. Please review!

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The elation and relief had faded, only to be replaced by grief. Fred – her brother – was dead. Her ex-teacher Remus Lupin and his wife, Tonks. Classmates and friends were all...gone. It was too much to deal with, all at once. She had to escape her pain, at least for a moment.

She searched the Great Hall for Harry, but couldn't find him anywhere. Ron and Hermione were missing, too. The three of them were probably off celebrating and mourning on their own. It wasn't fair, really – wasn't Harry _supposed_ to be in _love_ with _her_? He should have been there comforting her, not...off with her brother and best friend. Or at least, he should have invited her along.

Ginny wandered the Great Hall for a while longer, but eventually had to escape. There were too many families torn apart; she felt like she was going to choke on all the misery in the air. She practically ran out the door, but once she was out she wasn't sure where she was going. The grounds were out – there were still bodies out there. There were bodies here, too. But where wouldn't there be empty shells of her old comrades?

_The library,_ she thought. How many people would have decided to fight in there? There were too many books in the way.

She ran for the library, trying desperately not to see the corpses as she jumped over them. Once in the library she took a deep breath. It wasn't fresh air, but it was better then the smell of blood and sweat that filled the corridors.

Ginny wandered around the shelves upon shelves of books, trying not to think. Instead she looked at the titles. _The Dark Arts Outsmarted, Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection, Defensive Magical Theory, a Collection of Greek Myths_...wait, that one didn't belong. She slowly reached up and pulled the book off the shelf. Dust flew up into the air. Ginny wondered how no one caught this book being shelved wrong.

She brushed the dust off to reveal a worn leather cover, with a picture etched in gold. It was of a young woman holding what seemed to be an oddly-shaped apple. She hesitantly opened the cover and read through the index. _Zeus and Semele, Narcissus and Echo, Clytie, Hades and Persephone..._she swallowed hard at the last one. She was starting to feel dizzy...she should probably go find some chocolate or something.

She slipped the book under her arm and headed for the kitchen. There would probably be some chocolate there, somewhere, and she'd have a chance to sit down. She'd read the book, too...it would be a way to escape.

She somehow managed to avoid Peeves – who she heard singing up and down the corridors – and walked into the empty kitchen. The house elves were probably off celebrating, too. She searched the cupboard and managed to find a collection of chocolate bars. She grabbed one and tore it open and took a bite. She walked back into the kitchen and took a seat in a rickety wooden chair. She put the chocolate on the floor beside her and opened the book to the page containing the story of _Hades and Persephone,_ but could not see the words at first. Her eyes were blurry with tears, and she saw other words swimming before them.

_**Tell me your favorite story, **_he had written, all those years ago. Back when she'd just been an innocent, naïve little first year. Back when Harry hadn't even noticed her, though she so desperately wished he would.

_Why do you want to know?_ She had asked him, her hand shaking a little. She had just finished ranting to her dear friend about Harry – how it felt like he would never, ever see her, and how jealous she was of Cho, and how much it hurt her to see him being ignored by the Ravenclaw the same way he ignored her. She'd been crying while she wrote down all her feelings, and she wasn't sure if she was finished weeping yet.

_**I'm just curious.**_

She'd hesitated a moment, gulping hard. _Well, I really like Cinderella._ She remembered how difficult it had been to admit that. She didn't want him to think she was childish, but she also didn't want to lie to him. He was the only person she felt she could confide in.

_**What is that?**_ He had wanted to know.

_It's a Muggle fairytale. It's kind of childish – about a prince who falls in love with a girl. _

_**Tell it to me.**_

_Why?_

_**I'm curious. **_She'd smiled, deciding that he was just trying to distract her from thinking about Harry. She'd thought about what a nice friend he was to try and stop her from feeling upset. And then she'd thought about how much she wished he could be more then just a friend.

_Well,_ she'd hesitated a moment, and then continued, _it's about a girl called Cinderella whose father died, and she has to live with her wicked step-mother and step-sisters. One day there's a ball, and her family won't let her go. She when her step-family is gone, a fairy godmother appears and uses magic to give Cinderella a beautiful gown and a carriage and glass slippers. The fairy godmother warns Cinderella that at midnight the magic will go away, and then sends her off to the ball. When she gets there, everyone thinks she's beautiful and the prince asks her to dance. She and the prince fall in love, and Cinderella loses track of the time. She manages to get away right before the magic fades, but in her rush she leaves behind a glass slipper. The prince picks up the slipper before the magic is completely undone, and he uses the slipper to try and find Cinderella, by looking for the girl the slipper will fit. One day he arrives at Cinderella's step-mother's house, and the step-mother tries to keep Cinderella away from the prince. She gets the prince to try her two daughters, and when the shoe won't fit their feet, she tells him there are no more women in the house. But on the way out Cinderella managed to get to him, and he puts the slipper on her foot, and they kiss and get married and live happily ever after. The end._

Ginny had waited, holding her breath...hoping he wouldn't call her a silly little girl for liking such childish stories that she should have outgrown years ago.

_**That's very silly, **_he had said, and Ginny almost cried again until he added, _**Magic doesn't fade away at midnight. Where do Muggles get such ideas?**_

She had almost laughed with relief. _What about you?_

_**What about me?**_

_What's your favorite story?_

_**Mine? Why do you want to know?**_

Ginny had grinned, and wished for a moment he was really sitting beside her so she could stick her tongue out at him. _I'm curious._

There had been a long pause, and Ginny grew afraid he wouldn't answer. Or maybe he liked a silly fairytale, too, and was like her...afraid to admit he wasn't as grown-up as he seemed to be.

_**It's an old Muggle myth, from the Greeks.**_

Ginny had frowned in disappointment. _I don't know about Greek mythology. Can you tell me about it?_

_**Of course,**_ he had written, and then there was a pause. _**The Dark Lord Hades ruled the Underworld after losing a draw of luck with his brothers. After centuries alone, he became cold-hearted. One day he was on his way to Olympus – home of the other Gods – to discuss matters of the Underworld, when Aphrodite – the Goddess of Love – spotted him. She told her son, Cupid, to shoot an arrow at him, to make him fall in love. If everyone else was under their power, why not Hades as well?**_

_**When the arrow pierced his heart, he looked around and saw a young spring goddess named Persephone playing in the fields. He fell in love with her, kidnapped her and took her to the Underworld with him. He offered her jewels – for he owned all the diamond and emerald and sapphire mines – his servants, his palace, everything to her, but she still hated him for taking her away from her mother. He married her anyway, and made her his Queen.**_

Ginny waited, but he did not continue.

_Is that the end?_

There was another pause, and then, _**I don't remember the rest of it.**_

_It's not very romantic, _Ginny had written, and instantly regretted it. The tale probably wasn't _supposed_ to be romantic – he was a boy, after all.

_**You don't think so?**_

_No._

_**But he loves her. He offers her everything that he has in exchange for her love.**_

Ginny had frowned. _But she doesn't love him...he took her against her will._

_**He has been alone for a very long time...he had never been loved. Perhaps he does not know how people act towards someone they love. Perhaps he's expressing his love in the only way he knows how.**_

_Still, he should know better then to kidnap her._

_**If it were you, Ginevra, would you hate him?**_

She could remember pausing, trying to figure out what she would have done in a situation like that. What would she do, if someone loved her and took her away from her family?

_No...I don't think so. But I would be very angry with him. I'd try to make him understand that you can't treat someone that way._

_**And if he refused to release you? If he said he simply could not stand to watch you leave him, knowing you would never come back? **_

_I don't know._ She had sighed. _I think I'd point out that I didn't say I wouldn't come back...just that he shouldn't take me like that. I'd say I want to get to know him, but I'd want my family, too. Why are you asking these questions? _

He'd ignored her. _**You know, some say that your favorite story is really your favorite dream...what you wish would happen to you.**_

Ginny had blushed, and felt relieved that her dear friend could not see it. _Why are you asking these questions?_ She had repeated.

_**Just curious.**_

It was her most precious memory of him. It was the only time he had showed a hint of returning her feelings for him. The rest of the time he was kind, charming, supportive – but never anything near romantic, which she now was grateful for. If he'd been more romantic...Ginny shuddered.

After the Chamber, she tried to forget that moment had ever happened, but that one conversation was imprinted on her memory, word-for-word. Nothing she had dared to try could ever erase it.

And now the man who had been on the other side of that notebook lied dead in the Great Hall, and all around his body people were celebrating that he was finally gone. Ginny was glad he was gone, too, but still, somehow, she felt a twinge of regret. No matter how often she told herself what a horrible, cruel monster he was...that he was responsible for so many deaths, including her brother's...no matter how often she told herself that every kind thing he said to her was a lie...no matter how much she really, truly _hated_ him...she couldn't get the regret to go away. He could have been so great...he had such power! If he had only been good...if only he hadn't been born into such a terrible life...if only...

Sighing, Ginny picked up the chocolate and stood. She had intended to read the myth in hopes that knowing the end might help her move on, but now she thought that maybe it would just make everything worse.

She was about to go back to the library to put the book on the shelf, but she noticed a bowl of fruit resting on a counter. Inside the white porcelain bowl were flawless green apples and beautiful bright oranges and perfect yellow bananas, and one large, leathery red fruit. Ginny glanced back down at the cover of the myth book. It was the same fruit that the young women on the cover held in her hands.

Slowly, Ginny walked over and set the chocolate and book aside and picked up the fruit. It was oddly heavy, and she couldn't figure out how it was eaten. Did one bite through the thick skin? Experimentally, she pushed a finger through, and pulled it back out. A dark red juice covered the tip of her finger, staining her skin. It almost looked like blood, except that it was too thin a liquid for that.

Ginny picked the book back up and took the fruit with her to the chair and sat down. She put the book on her lap and tore the fruit open. Inside was a thin white covering hiding clumps of soft, thick red seeds. She pulled a seed out and slipped it past her lips, and pushed it against the roof of her mouth with her tongue. The seed burst open and a sweet, yet acidic juice came from it. She pulled a few more clumps of seeds from the fruit and ate those, as well. Something about their complicated flavor was addicting, and she was beginning to realize just how hungry she was. She consumed half the fruit before realizing that the blood red juices covered her hands, and were staining the cover of the book.

Ginny stood and put the book in the vacant chair, and then went to the sink. She put the fruit beside it, and turned on the water.

"_Ginevra..."_ a voice reached her ears suddenly. She gasped and spun around, but couldn't see anyone. That voice had sounded just like...

She could feel another, better-repressed memory resurfacing.

"_Why, hello there, Ginevra..." _It had been exactly how she'd pictured _his _voice. Deep, calm, collected, cultured..._beautiful._

But she had been in a place she did not recognize, with no memory of how she'd gotten there. And there was red all over her...and she remembered getting rid of that diary..._how..._

And now, again, she asked herself 'how'. How could she hear _his_ voice, now? He was dead. And that voice had died many years before the body had, when he'd sold his soul for immortality. The beautiful deep voice had been replaced by a hideous, high hiss...

_But why was she hearing it now?_

Ginny swallowed hard, her eyes looking through every dark corner in the kitchen, but she didn't see anyone, not even a house elf. It must have been her imagination. Perhaps...the stress had done something...caused some kind of coping mechanism...

She turned back to the sink, only to see that the fruit that had been beside it was now gone. Her eyes widened. Hadn't it been _right there?_

"Maybe I'm going insane..." she muttered to herself. She wouldn't be surprised, considering all she had just gone through.

"You, Ginevra? Mad? Never," _his _voice scoffed. She spun around, and this time her eyes met a face. She gasped and gripped the counter in order to keep from falling, as her legs now refused to hold her up. She reached for her wand, and was terrified to find that she'd left it in the Great Hall.

Dark brown hair fell over a large, pale forehead. His eyes were also dark brown, and held a hint of amusement. His other features were strong and handsome and familiar. He wore long, dark Slytherin robes. The only way he'd changed was that he was now..._ghostly._

"T-Tom?" Ginny stuttered, not believing what she was seeing.

He grinned, and held his hand up. In it, he clasped the fruit. "Looking for this?"

"_How?_" she asked.

"Well, it seems I can become invisible and-"

"_You know what I meant!"_ She shrieked. "What are you doing here? You're – you – you're-"

"Dead?" Tom smirked, walking up to her. Ginny wanted to get away, but she didn't think her legs were working right yet. He set the fruit on the counter beside her. "Yes, I know. I wouldn't be a ghost otherwise."

"But..." she began breathlessly."But you...why aren't you...shouldn't you be..."

"Lord Voldemort?" He laughed. "Now that I am dead all of my soul has been put back together. I'm no longer the...ah, _reptilian_ creature I was."

"But why are you _here?"_

Tom Riddle shrugged. "It seems I have some unfinished business."

He turned, and walked to the chair. He picked up the book and flipped through it, pausing on a specific page.

"Did you have a chance to finish it?" he asked her.

Ginny wanted to yell and scream and cry all at once. _He was dead! _He was_ dead, _and he wasn't going to leave her alone! What should she do? Should she call for Harry? But he wouldn't be able to hear her...

Still uncertain of exactly what to do, she decided to buy herself time. Whatever Tom Riddle had planned...it couldn't be good. "No. I was hungry..."

"I see," he said, smirking. Why was he _smirking?_ "Should I read you the end of it? It's only fair, since I told you the beginning..."

She really didn't want to remember that again. It would make her think of him as Tom too much. As Tom, her friend...not as Lord Voldemort, her enemy.

"Go ahead," she said, though, still hoping to buy herself time to figure a way out of this. Maybe someone would think to feed the exhausted army, and the house elves would return.

Tom walked around the chair and pushed it toward her. She glared at him suspiciously, but wasn't sure exactly what harm would come from sitting in a chair. It would be better to placate him then to make him angry...so she took a seat. Tom stood behind her, and began to talk.

"You remember where we left off?" Ginny nodded numbly. "Excellent. Well, then...I don't think I need the book to help me finish." She heard to book being placed on the counter behind her. "Hades made Persephone his Queen, against her will. Up on Earth, Demeter – her mother – was very angry. She threatened to freeze all the Earth unless her daughter was returned to her. Zeus – King of the Gods – could not allow this, so he ordered Hades to return Persephone. But of course, Hades couldn't just let his wife go. So...he gave her a pomegranate. Do you know what that is, Ginevra?" She shook her head. "The fruit you were eating. _That_ is a pomegranate."

Ginny felt her heart begin to race. She didn't know why...but she was suddenly terrified. Perhaps it had finally dawned on her that _Lord Voldemort_ was not gone, but speaking to her in a room...where she was alone with him.

"You see, Ginevra...in the Underworld there was a law, that anyone who ate of something grown and harvested there must live there forever. She ate six seeds. Zeus decided that she would return with her mother, but for six months of the year she would be with her husband. That is why there is winter. Her mother grieves every month her daughter is, essentially, dead."

Dead. Oh, no. Dead. Because of a pomegranate.

"Did you know, Ginevra," he began, and she realized he said her name almost every time he spoke, "That pomegranate is used in a number of potions...and poisons?"

She began to shake, and he must have taken the jerky movement of her head as a nod.

"So is aconite. Do you remember what that is? You must have heard about it in Potions class..."

She remembered. "A plant...a very poisonous plant...also called Wolfsbane, and Monkshood..."

"It's also called Dumbledore's Delight," he laughed. "I always found that fact rather..._interesting_."

She couldn't breathe – the fear was choking her. Why did she feel so cold, yet burning at the same time?

She heard Tom's voice speaking to her, but it seemed so _distant_. "You should be feeling the effects soon,.."

And she was. She stood and rushed to the sink and tried to force herself to vomit by sticking her juice-stained fingers deep into her mouth.

"It's too late for that; Ginevra...the poison is already in your system." She heard him approaching behind her. "If you just relax, it won't hurt so much."

She spun around, blinded with anger. She threw her fist at his face, but she went straight through him. She collapsed onto the floor, and she could hear him laughing at her. She began to shake uncontrollably, and she felt like she was _on fire._

_A fever,_ some rational part of her mind explained. Extreme poisoning caused fevers, as well as the shaking and the sudden extreme thirst she was beginning to feel.

Ginny felt her strength slowly disappearing, no matter how hard she fought against it.

"Harry will...Harry will..." she couldn't finish.

"Harry will _what?_" he spat. "I'm already dead!"

Ginny felt tears running down her face.

This was it.

She was going to die.

She'd come so far, survived so much, and now she was going to die at the hands of a ghost.

Without even knowing _how._

But there was one thing she wouldn't die without knowing.

"_Why?_" she choked out.

"Because," Tom Riddle answered, "I was not going to go to the Underworld without my Queen."

-

**RubyMoon's Secret Place**

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**RubyMoon: **I hope you liked it! Originally, the Tom/Ginny interaction with the diary (the telling of the favorite stories) was going to be the prologue for a full-length fic, but as time went on I figured out that I had no idea where it was going to go. So I decided to make a one-shot of it. I hope it turned out okay. –smile- Ja ne!


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